(Memo)

Date: 6/21/2022
To: The Waste Cleanup Team for Earth Protection Agency
From: Christian Acosta
Subject: Environmental Impact of Tsunamis

You are receiving this memo because I want to propose a new way to start planning around
cleaning up debris after a tsunami disaster.When a tsunami hits, it is sure to leave a good
amount of destruction. This destruction can result in loss of life, change of landscape, the
destruction of animal habitat, and in the destruction of buildings, offices, and other man-made
buildings resulting in debris. This memo goes into the environmental impact of tsunamis, and
what we would need to do to make sure that we create good solutions in order to prevent
climate change.

Summary
The environmental impacts of a tsunami are evident every time one happens. Whether it is the
Sunda Strait Tsunami that happened in 2018, the Sumatra tsunami of 2004, or even the Lisbon
earthquake and tsunami way back in 1755, these tsunamis often leave debris that is often hard
to clean up. If there isn’t an efficient way to clean up the debris without burning the debris or no
efficient way to include government officials and state officials for the cleanup, then the
environment around them will be more at risk for climate change.

Unorganized Cleanup is Harmful

Unorganized cleanup can prove to be quite detrimental. If there aren't any plans to clean up the
debris, there will be a lot of time wasted as well as a waste of resources due to not estimating
how much debris there will be when such a disaster will occur (in this case, a tsunami happens).
There will also be less community resilience; that is, it will take a community affected by a
tsunami more time and money to position their environment back to a pre-tsunami state. Finally,
there will prove to be more increased risk of climate change due to not having a plan to
effectively remove the debris. In turn, that will increase the threat of climate change, which will
result in an increased risk of other natural disasters, such as droughts, wildfires, and more
severe thunderstorms.

Coming Up With A Plan

When coming up with a plan, make sure to document it in a debris management plan, according
to the Environmental Protection Agency, or the EPA. By having a plan to manage debris after a
tsunami, communities can better accommodate for debris streams and the most likely areas to
have the most harmful constituents, such as any oil spills around an industrial area, areas
where tiny pieces of debris that can become airborne and easily inhaled, becoming poisonous
to a human or animal, any places that have toxic amounts of metal around the area, and
hazardous materials that the tsunami went through such as batteries, gas tanks, propane tanks,
and air conditioners. To continue planning, there needs to be locations identified that can handle
debris being stored temporarily. This is to have most of the debris put away for reconstruction of
the community being put back into its pre-tsunami state.

When planning for relief efforts to return the community or town back to its pre-tsunami state, we
must also look to identify available resources. These resources could range from local
resources to regional resources to mutual aid agreements. It is important that communities enter
into mutual-aid agreements before and when a natural disaster happens, as a mutual aid
agreement can allow for the communities to assist with one another in the event that a tsunami
ever ends up happening. In the mutual aid agreement, the communities can use each other's
equipment as well as have services to help during and after a natural disaster. When such
agreements are in place, it can provide for easier and more efficient debris removal, which in
turn, can reduce the potential of potential waste/debris, which can reduce the potential of
climate change.

Conclusions
To clean up the debris after a tsunami in a very efficient way, we need to have a plan before the
tsunami occurs. That can either take form in having a debris management plan approved by the
EPA, getting into mutual aid agreements so that everyone can benefit from each other and thus
more efficiently get back to a pre-tsunami state, and by looking for what available resources are
currently out there.

Recommendations
Some recommendations to use around the workplace is to come up with plans to handle
tsunamis in places that are prone to destruction made by the tsunami. Within the Earth
Protection Agency, we should reach out to local authorities and the local government in order to
get them in the loop as well, so that they can be the first people to execute the plan we set out
for them. Finally, make sure to look for any mutual agreements that the local
authorities/government may be aware of, and make sure to include that in the plan so that if the
tsunami comes and strikes, there will be parties who will know exactly what to give and take to
get to get back to the pre-tsunami state.
(Email)
Date: 6/21/2022
To: Michael Regan
From: Christian Acosta
Subject: Funding for Debris and Waste Cleanup

Dear Michael,

My name is Christian Acosta from the waste cleanup department within the Earth Protection
Agency, and I wanted to reach out to you about a current issue regarding tsunami relief.

Just recently, a town off the coast of Japan has been struck by a tsunami, and have had their
town destroyed. Homes, office buildings, and objects have since turned into debris. Because of
the debris that the tsunami has left, there have been devastating environmental impacts. For
example, due to the chemical pollution that the tsunami may leave behind, animals may become
exposed and killed by the dangerous chemical pollution. All this pollution isn’t good for our
ecosystem, and we need to do whatever we can to remedy that as much as possible.

A solution that we’ve come up with our team is simple, and that we want more funding to go
towards financial relief towards cleaning up all that debris in Japan. If more funding was
provided for debris cleanup, we believe that there will be little harm done to the environment
around them. If you, as our administrator, can approve of this proposal, then I believe that it will
benefit everyone who has been affected by this tsunami.

I hope to hear from you soon!

Best Regards,
Christian Acosta Castanon